Category: General

Flatcoat running and a flapping tongue

Watching the flocks of geese on the move

In the long shadows of the low lying sun.

Some quality time with Anna while on a walk.

A mexican standoff

We can’t look like supermodels every single moment, now can we?

Any special plans for the weekend? We know we are going to be enjoying the colorful Finnish forests.

Kulo following in Kamu’s footsteps playing king of the rock.

Autumn heather

Eino and his grey chin

Flatcoats and their long snouts. Sometimes it’s a challenge when you have a very shallow depth of field. But at least the leaf stuck to Kulo’s head for a moment or two.

Kulo’s first attempt with the leaf didn’t exactly succeed.

The goofy puppy

And the fools in a sit stay. And finally given permission to be free..

But then when the message is not lost in translation and the idea clicks, the execution is perfect.

Every now and then when posing the dogs there is some challenge in figuring out exactly what is desired from them.

While Eino isn’t exactly a hunting dog, every now and then you can see the instict take over and his nose start to scent the surroundings.

Kulo making himself smaller when Kamu is approaching.

Sometimes it is so difficult to stand still because the tail is wagging so hard that the paws just have to move as well.

The weather is getting colder which means less panting with more running!

King of the rock

It’s Eino’s camouflage season!

Don’t tell anyone, but Kamu may have just snuck away from a stay… Älkää kertoko kenellekään, mutta Kamu saattoi juuri hiipiä pois paikka-käskystä.

It’s starting to smell like autumn around here.

Has there even been a flatcoat who isn’t an optimist?

What’s that there? Is it the weekend?

Something big and white on the ground near the powerline has often meant a dead swan, but this time it was luckily just a large piece of runaway plastic from the hay bales.

Time for a harvest dance party!

Ferocious creatures

Eino trying to enjoy the sun while keeping a wary eye on the black missile. 

Posing.  And no longer posing. 

Wow. 20 years of daily posts of photographs here on the blog. Who would have thought we would still be doing this after so many years.  Don’t worry, we have some special content planned, but it will take us a while to get them sorted with hard drive failures and being busy with the new…

And heeere’s Eino!

Happiness is…

The fields are free again!

Eino and some of the sea buckthorn on our new property. 

As we mentioned, Kamu is passionate about the well in our yard. He will interrupt whatever he is doing and rush to the well whenever someone starts to use it to get water. 

Little Kulo posing. And note the two phtobombers in the background. 

Kamu is following in Topi and Luka’s footsteps by always drinking from a hose. And now the well in our yard. Except now he also added helping Anna water the flowers to his repertoire. 

Using an optically not so perfect lens fits the vibe of the yard of a 100 year old house.

Hot autumn days and playtime in the shade. In fact, today Finland broke it’s record of hot days per year. We’ve now had 66 days this year with temperatures over 25°C somewhere in Finland. And yes, for us Finns that’s plenty hot.

We are experiencing an uncommonly warm early September and the dogs tongues are showing it.

We’ve noticed a distinct lack of enthusiasm from the boys in leaving the new place to go to our old house.

Fuzzy moments in the evening light

The boys: We’re not begging. We are just attentive.

Kulo got to be the first of our dogs to walk on the floor we finished three weeks ago. And this is a sneak peek of what the interiors of the little yellow house on the hill will look like.

It’s almost weekend and a chance to sleep in.

The guardian of the toolshed

Summer evenings by the lake

A very tired Kamu after a another long day in the countryside.

A dark and mysterious Eino

Here’s Kamu reminding you that summer is not over yet.

Like seen yesterday, pretty much every time we ask Eino to sit and pose one of the flatcoats will come and start licking his face. But luckily we do manage to get the flatcoats out of the frame and Eino gets his time in front of the lens as well.

Today marks 31 years since Anna’s first dog, Kassu, was born and 22 years from when our first flatcoat, Flippe, was born. Who would have thought that we would now be living with flatcoats number seven and eight?

The oldest two of our pack.

Who is that hiding in the grasses?

All claims of retrievers eating excessive amounts of grass are exaggerated.

Today Kulo started his career in retriever hunting tests by participating in the working ability test for retrievers in Finland. Unfortunately he did not pass the test. But we are very satisfied with the progress he showed. He has been somewhat soft and reactive in new situations since he was a small puppy (something his…

A nice spot for evening walks near just outside our new property.

So, the humans went and did a thing. They bought us a new old house. It’s a 100 year old log structure and you will be seeing a lot more of it in the future. And in fact, you’ve seen glimpses of it and the property it is on in the last few years. There’s…

Contact

Heading west

The focus of a young flatcoat chasing after water lilies.

Of course, summer isn’t summer without plenty of time at the beach.

But even if we don’t get to see a sharp running black job, seeing Eino run with a smile on his face is always worth it.

The only problem with walking the dogs in the golden light of cooling evenings is that the black one is just too fast for the camera for anything other than blurry shots. So a picture of Kamu instead.

A part of Finnish summers is taking walks in the long time of golden light with the barely setting sun.

And of course, we’ve spent a lot of time running around with the whole pack during the summer.

In addition to our trip to the Baltics, what else has been a part of our summer? Well Eino has been recuperating from a bee sting that caused two boils in his leg. He is all well now.

All trips must come to and end and Mr Backseat of a Trans Am Optimus Canis (Kamu) needs to jump into his car and head back home to prepare for new adventures.

Kulo in the air. Following in the pawsteps of pretty much every other dog on the blog as well.

A water installation by Kamu

Sand and water – what’s not to love about the beaches of the Baltic Sea in the Baltics?

Kulo: Is this amber? Or can I eat it if it isn’t?

Another evening of vanlife, another new beach to explore.

Just a girl and her pal. (Kamu is Finnish for a friend or pal.) Honestly, this was definitely not a bad spot to spend the night.

Sunsets on the Latvian coast with pre-WW1 fortifications framing the subject.

Searching for Baltic Sea amber Quality control checking if the find was actually amber or just a pretty pebble.

Riding the wave

20 years since Jalo was born. We are really approaching the 20th anniversary of the blog rapidly. It’s only eight weeks away.

No more shallow puddles of sweet water for us. We’re back at the sea baby!

After a nice long swim on a hot day it’s time for a nice rubdown with the towel.

The chase is on

Finally water deep enough to swim in! The Curonian Lagoon is an interesting body of water. It’s quite big but very shallow with a maximum depth of under six meters. So no wonder it took us ages to walk far enough from the shore to be able to swim.

There are all kinds of explanations of what the different ear positions of a dogs mean. But can anyone tell us what it means when a retrievers flapping ears are rolled upwards?

What is this odd place? We’ve walked a hundred meters from the shore and our paws still reach the bottom.

Hurry up Anna! We see water.

On our trip into the Baltics we once again found ourselves very close to the border between Lithuania and Russia at Kaliningrad. Kamu and Ramin were keeping a watchful eye on the border just in case.

How do you know that your dog has spent too much time on construction sites? He tries to climb anything even remotely resembling a ladder…

An excellent way to enjoy the summer heat. Swim.

Even the Baltics have an abundance of castles and manor houses. Why don’t we have more of them in Finland?

The heatwave continued and continued in late May and the boys – and humans – used every single body of water available to cool off.

Admittedly, a large head of Lenin was not something we would have expected to find…

The Baltics have interesting remnants and relics of the Soviet era for exploration. Here we are at an old Soviet nuclear missile base in front of one of the hangars where the warheads and launchsystems were stored.

Our crossing of the Gulf of Finland seemed to trigger something since the temperatures changed from fairly cool for May to an absolute heatwave nearly overnight.

We’ll jump from the photos from last autumn to our late spring and early summer trip to the Baltics. After an uncommonly warm April, May had started out really cool and since Ramin had a few work trips in Southern Finland and the Baltics we decided to pack up the van, drop Eino off at…

Summer fun in the water and a weird little tongue monster

Three years without Topi. We so miss Ramin’s shadow.

On the border between Latvia and Estonia our heater stopped working, yet again. With the night temperatures plunging to below zero we had to get everything in the van setup for winter travel and managed to survive waking up in the morning with a cool +8°C in the van. It actually ended up taking us…

And from Latvia we made our way into Estonia for the next weekend and another dog show. And we got to enjoys rainy Tallinn for a few days.

From Western Germany we made our way quite quickly through the rest of Germany, Poland and Lithuania to end up in Latvia for a couple of dogs shows which we reported already told you about when they happened last October. The lingering summer heat of Normandy had really disappeared by then. But at least the…

The reason for our stop at the garage? Well our heater was not getting any fuel and we needed to get the fuel tank dropped to investigate the problem. And hopefully fix it. And it was fixed.

After Cologne we visited a garage in a smaller German city where they built and repaired campervans. And had traveled around the world, including South America, in their own vehicle with their flatcoat.

Kamu, Kulo and Anna in front of the Cologne Catherdral

The director and the photographer

Anna and Kamu found a very big tree somewhere in Belgium.

Anna and her passion for photographing old doors means that Kamu ends up in front of them quite often as well.

Even though we were heading towards home, we didn’t hurry back and spent some time exploring smaller French towns along the way.

Kulo posing in Etretat

Kamu and Anna in Etretat

Our final moments on the coast of Normandy before turning the nose of our van towards the east and starting to make our way back to Finland.

Anna and Kamu, and Ramin and the boys on the beaches of Normandy.

Midsummer – time for swimming and shaking off the water.

Kamu in the midsummer smoke sauna. Happy midsummer!

Evening walks and sunsets on the beach

And the final photo from here – another family portrait since we finally remembered to take two during this trip.

Kulo serving as a test model…

Two little flatcoats and a very famous monastery.

In addition to being really used to modeling in front of the camera, our boys are often quite patient in waiting behind the camera for other photography to happen as well.

Even after the sun has set, the sea side is a magical place to run along the beach.

Enjoying sunset on the beach.

Kamu: Sand? What sand?

The scene from in front of the camera and to the side.

When we were wandering the coast of Brittany last autumn Kulo discovered the joy that is mussles. Yes, he eats them. With the shell if he can’t get them open otherwise. He will actively now search for them on the sea shore…

Beach walks in Brittany, part 2

Beach walks in Brittany

Somewhere in France

Kamu thinking how much cooler it would be if the lion statues surrounding the gateway to the chateau were actually flatcoats. The chateau in all it’s glory spanning across the whole river.

Today marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. Last autumn we had a chance to visit the area and we explored both Omaha and Utah Beaches. Here Ramin and the boys are making their own landing on Omaha Beach just below the cliffs from the American cemetery and under the watchful eye…

Anna, Kamu, Kulo and the Chateau de Chenonceau

Anna and Kamu enjoying a view of the chateau straddling the river.

The chateau and its master

Chateau gardens. A prime example of owners who have too much free time on their hands. Or lots of hired help. It’s exhausting to think of the amount of time gardening them takes.

Autumn flowers in the spring. Sure, Paris is an interesting city for the humans to visit, but for big country dogs it isn’t all that interesting. Although we did find a nice big park in which to walk them. After a week of Ramin’s work in Paris we headed first into Orleans and then further…

We couldn’t leave the Eiffel Tower without a family photo, now could we?

After the weekend of shows we had to be in Paris by Monday afternoon. We drove into France, spent Sunday afternoon and early Monday in Champaign country sleeping in a vineyard and then braved the traffic to Paris a bit after noon. Our campground was a 6 kilometer walk from the Eiffel Tower, so of…

After the long day of driving we’d found a spot for the night just barely inside Germany but only 15 kilometres from the site of the shows in the Netherlands. We’ve reported on the shows way back when so no recapping that here. By this time both were already extremely experienced vandogs.

When a cafe is made out of an old VW Kombi, you simply must stop for a cup.

After we woke up somewhere in the German countryside near Puttgarten we started to make our way towards southern Netherlands and a dog show there. We had a long day of driving ahead of us but still had the time to go for a stroll in the center of Bremen where Ramin had spent two…

We only spent the single day in Copenhagen and continued our drive south heading to Rødby to catch the late night ferry to Germany. This ferry was Kulo’s 15th at the time and he matched his age in months with the number of ferry journeys.

From Stockholm we drove through the night after the workday ended and woke up in the outskirts of Copenhagen the next morning where Anna and the boys spent the day by a lake while Ramin was dealing with more work stuff.

Stockholm last autumn was also showing the colors of Ukraine in various places as a sign of solidarity.

We ended up in a city which smelled quite familiar to Kulo, after all it is where we picked him up from his breeder. Of course we are talking about Stockholm. We stayed there for a few days and explored parts of the citry while Ramin had some work stuff to deal with.

You know, we’ve yet to tell you about a trip we took last autumn. We started off by boarding a ferry in the evening – one of those that you are on long enough that we all had a cabin that we shared. And woke up the next morning to a very foggy morning.

Eastern Finland does not hide whose side they are on.

The pier of the country bumpkins. That’s pretty much what the sign says.

The amount of adventures and new experiences while traveling in the van tends to tire a little flatcoat out. 

One of our favorite places for a city walk with the boys is the harbor of Lappeenranta. 

Of course no visit to the Southeast corner of Finland is complete without a stops at our favorite coffee roasters, Lehmus.

Kulo also got to pose along the anti-tank installations. And a wider view of the anti-tank installations.

Salpalinja is a very long series of fortifications that was built from 1940 onwards across Eastern Finland and consists of series of trenches and different types of bunkers, entrenchments etc. The sight that pretty much every Finn will recognize is these anti-tank installations that still dot the countryside and forests across Eastern Finland.

On our trip down south to the show we also continued the exploration of the fortrifications left over from various wars across Europe. Since we were in Eastern Finland we were again exploring parts Salpalinja – the final defensive line during World War 2 that was luckily never used.

Last weekend we drove to Southern Finland to Loviisa for a dog show. Kulo’s first after turning two and he was placed as second best male and he got the last CAC he needed from Finland. Now he needs to qualify for the field to gain his Finnish Champion title. There is a reason why…

Happy Mother’s Day!

Not all training is done with game. We’ve been taking our dummies out quite a bit as well.

And a very proud brown job.

Proud dog and happy handler

Just hanging out here enjoying the water. And if you look closely, the meltwater has brought the thistles out from hiding as well.

Overflowing ditches mean lots of opportunities for swimming and finding treasures in the water.

It’s not always just Kulo that is the one chasing Eino and being annoying. Sometimes it’s the other way around.

And to continue our birthday week we once again have a veteran in the house with Eino turning 8 today!

Continue the sentence: Running into the weekend like…

The final spots of snow on the shade of the birch forests. It’s always amazing how quickly the snow melts and spring takes over.

Happy May Day! We’ve celebrated it by exploring the overflowing ditches and enjoying the open fields with no snow to slow us down.

This little one turns two already! Where has time gone? Our Plan B has really lived up to his kennelname of Miss Mallorys Exciting Roundtrip by spending over a quarter of his life already living vanlife instead of houselife. Happy birthday Kulo!

In addition to the dummies we’ve been melting the training game from our freezer to wake up the retrievers’ senses.

The bumpers are out and it’s time to train!

The last winter photo for a while. While we’ve been going through the archives and fixing issues we’ve been reading about the last year of Flippe’s life and the way his behavior changed due to pain. Many of the changes and behaviors are what we see in Eino as well, they have many of the…

Possibly one of the most challenging subjects for the autofocus of a camera and lens: a black flatcoat coming directly towards you at full speed.

A few more snowy pictures coming up before go back to the snowless and muddy fields. We also noticed that there are several issues with the posts that we imported. Some have working thumbnails and missing images when opened and some are the opposite. We are fixing it, but it will still take a few…

In honor of the day of dog in Finland, fresh passport photos of the whole pack.

The current rain has pretty much washed away the snow that fell over the weekend. But we won’t go to the muddy season in our photos yet.

We’re still in the middle of an uncommon cold spell even though a lot of the snowfall from the other day has already melted. But the ditches are frozen over again.

While Kulo is quite the pest when it comes to Eino, they really are good friends and we can see that Eino has missed having a black pillow.

We interrupt spring with a snow storm that dumped over 10 cm of fresh snow on us. Not that the flatcoats mind.

Eino: Nope. Not going in there. Those flatcoats are plain crazy.

Post swim shakes. And in case you were wondering, Kulo is finding his inner flatcoat more and more and will also swim among the ice in the meltwater.

In a bit over a week we lost pretty much all of our snow and the low lying fields are covered in water to the delight of the flatcoats.

Maybe the last snowfall pictures of the season? Or maybe not. Let’s see how the spring progresses.

And a flying flatcoat with a retro lens.

Getting the focus right on a moving dog with a manual focus lens is a bit of a challenge. But every now and then we manage to get it right enough. And yes, the new lens is quite fun. Especially when we catch expressions like this:

We took the lens we used for our Christmas portraits out during a sunny day to see how it works outside when there is lots of light. And it didn’t disappoint. It has a character that an optically perfect lens just doesn’t have and gives the photos a certain feel. Sure, like many novelty lenses…

An attempt at a speedy run-by kiss.

For some reason Eino decided to make a sudden change in direction…

Post swim shakes and rolls for Eino. This time deserved.

The melting snow and ice on the ditches means that the flatcoats get to swim and Eino suddenly finds himself forced to swim.

Eino and his camouflage.

An early April cold spell has meant that most of Kamu’s swimming holes have frozen over and just small little holes remain for him to get wet in. But even the smallest hole will do fine.

Kulo and a little treasure he found from under the melting snow.

We took Kulo for his official x-rays for health checks and got the results yesterday. And they could not have been better: hips A/A, elbows 0/0 and knees 0/0. It’s funny how there is always quite a bit of anxiety before the x-rays are taken and especially during the time between the x-rays being taken…

Break the ice and swim. Topi did it first and Kamu learned his lessons well.

Well, the move is now done, but there’s still a lot of remodeling to do.

We are wondering if one of the reasons for the poor performance of our new site could be the reason that we have a fully bilingual site and most free platforms don’t really do multilingual sites with a lot of content well. What do you think of this approach where we have both languages in…

Our digital move is taking way longer than expected. Let alone that we still need to do some remodeling as well. We are having some issues with the performance of our new platform which is causing issues. Looks like our resident nerd needs to get cracking.

Our digital move is still ongoing so things will definitely be weird around here. A lot of old stuff is still missing and links on the new site will definitely not work. But we are working on it. Transfering over 7000 blog posts doesn’t happen very quickly.

We are moving the digital home of Life of Jalo currently so things may look a bit off here on the site for a while. At the same time we are revamping the whole platform and going from a home grown approach to running on WordPress. So some things might not work like they have…

Happy, happy Easter and enjoy the long weekend! At least in Finland we have a four day weekend…

Kamu finally got some mail from Belgium and his C.I.B and C.I.E titles have finally been confirmed. Kamu finally got some mail from Belgium and his C.I.B and C.I.E titles have finally been confirmed.

Kamu’s swimming hole has frozen.

Eino: Those crazy flatcoats and their running around forests looking for hidden dummies.

Some training with Kamu. The snow cover is finally firm enough that we can consider doing some training in the forests.

Eyes on spring, but not willing to let go of the snow either.

You remember Kamu looking handsome a few days ago? Well…

Eino is getting so grey. And it’s happening quite quickly. We can’t wait for him to have a white face.

And just so you don’t forget, Kamu already looks very much like an adult.

Kulo is starting to look like a grown up. At least every now and then.

Kulo: I’m a good boy. Oh yes I am.

We found a tree in the middle of the pond.

Fleeting moments of stillness and looking handsome before it is time to become a lovable goofball again. He really has inherited many of Luka’s habits.

Catkins, a sure sign of the approaching spring.

Eino running from the devil, aka Kulo.

Shake it baby, shake it!

It’s been a while since we’ve last had a flying Miss Mallorys dog in our photographs.

Playtime looks very rough at times, but so far we have no cuts or scrapes.

Someone is very sure of himself.

We have impact! We have impact! We have impact! We have impact!

Hit the breaks, collision imminent.

Happy International Women’s Day! The boys have all been taking care of the only woman in our pack.

Eino rolls around in the snow so rarely that Kulo had to run over to see what on earth he was doing.

It’s hard to believe that Kulo is just two months shy of turning two years old.

An old weathered log wall is a perfect backdrop for photos. Even if the boys haven’t seen a pair of scissors for ages.

Eino is getting more and more grey in his face. We can’t wait for his whole face to be white. Eino is getting more and more grey in his face. We can’t wait for his whole face to be white.

Training with the little one.

Kamu the building inspector hard at work

Friday!

Leaping into spring…

The joy of a hard crust on the snow and how it feels when rolling around. The joy of a hard crust on the snow and how it feels when rolling around. The joy of a hard crust on the snow and how it feels when rolling around. The joy of a hard crust on…

Sometimes it feels like the boys will do anything to avoid being in a posed photograph… Sometimes it feels like the boys will do anything to avoid being in a posed photograph… Sometimes it feels like the boys will do anything to avoid being in a posed photograph…

Sometimes the stars do not align in an attempt to get a photo of the whole gang.

Kulo: Can I come give you a kiss?

Success! Eino is getting more and more grey.

Try to take a solo photo of Eino and what do you get? Two flatcoats trying to hog the lens…

Kamu: What are you doing down there? Kamu: Do you need a lick?

We are in the middle of a patch of grey weather with no sunshine in sight. So enjoy this playsession from a few weeks ago.

Despite the recent snowfall that buried most of our paths there were some spots in the forest where remains of the paths could be seen and the boys didn’t sink to the tops of their backs.

Kamu imitating a fox

We just realised that since we left Finland last year in the middle of winter and jumped straight into snowless spring in England, this will be Kulo’s first real spring.

We just got 30 cm (12 inches) or so of fresh snow that turned to rain so we lost all the paths we’ve made in the forest and it looks like there might be some tiring walks in front of us until we get new paths made.

Sunset playtime

Eino, you better watch your six. You are under observation.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Or friendship day as it is celebrated in Finland.

What is that we spy in the distance? Maybe hints of spring?

Let’s take a lie down for this one… Our site is running on a completely custom platform and we just found out that the support for the development environment it is running on will be removed. So the humans, mainly Ramin, are hard at work finding a new home for the blog and converting all…

Kulo: Give me scrathces!

The fools and the master in the shadows

Kulo searching for the adventures the weekend will bring.

Heere’s Eino!

Winter walks along the paths we’ve made. Winter walks along the paths we’ve made.

1 2 3 Kamu: That didn’t hurt!

Kulo: Why did you stay behind? Let me come and get you.

Anna fell down, and of course there’s a flatcoat present to “help.”

When did this happen? The little puppy has grown up.

Today is Kamu’s gotcha day. Six years since we picked this little one up.

Sniffing the tracks of wildlife

The days are getting longer and longer and yesterday was the first time the sunlight felt warm again. There’s still plenty of winter and snow left (good for that), but the deepeset darkness is going away.

And back to the present day and the “young ones” playing in the snow.

It’s not a stick in Emil’s mouth this time… Today would have been Emil’s 13 birthday. He is on our minds.

It’s election day – first round – for the next president of Finland. No, Kamu is not on the ballot. Our humans voted already last week in the pre-election period. Finland basically has a week of pre-election where there are voting locations all around (even in shopping malls) in addition to the main election day.…

Those ears…

18 years since this little one, our one and only Luka, was born. Even though he was our third flatcoat already he really taught us what a flatcoat should be like. And the fact that he was yellow had nothing at all to do with it.

All three, sitting still for a moment.

A happy moment with the puppy. A happy moment with the puppy.

Both of the flatcoats with eyes on Anna. Note how Kulo is slightly leaning away from Kamu. Just to make sure Kamu knows he has his personal space 🙂

The differences in what Kamu and Eino find interesting.Yes, Anna is just out of the frame to the left. Eino is looking towards a feeding spot for local wildlife.

Kamu has inherited Topi’s passion to investigate every ditch along our walks to check if there a chance to get his paws wet. Or better yet go for a swim.

Eyes on something. Or maybe nothing.

We’ve had several instances of big fluffy movie snow during the last week. Even the strong winds during the last 24 hours hasn’t ruined the experience of powder which is very deep in places.

The joy that a little stick can bring. Luckily Kulo is still satisfied with actually little sticks and not obsessed with finding ever bigger sticks.

A frosty and snowy Kamu. The times we get big, movie snowflakes is rare enough that every moment has to be enjoyed.

Borthers. It really is fun and rewarding to watch the interaction between Kamu and Kulo and the way their bond has grown.

We’ve had two days of snowfall with some inches of wonderful powder covering all the existing snow.

Single track lane. The snowfall we’ve received today has made all our paths disappear so we need to make new ones.

We’ve had a long time without any fresh snow, so we have a good network of paths all over for the dogs to run on. Snow is falling now, so let’s see if we still have all these paths in a few days or not.

It feels so good to have a winter with real cold and clear days. We’ve missed the low lying midday sun. It feels so good to have a winter with real cold and clear days. We’ve missed the low lying midday sun. It feels so good to have a winter with real cold and clear…

The days are getting longer, but the sun is still so low than we can’t feel its warming rays yet.

A vintage Eino. And an update. Despite a scare early in December he has been doing quite well and is healthy and lively. So at the moment everything is good after the scare we had a year ago.

Traditionally epiphany is the day in Finland to take down the Christmas decorations. We’ve missed that date. It’s the day we start discussing taking the decorations down. But Kamu tried to start already.

What would winters in the north be without long dark nights?

Based on the forecast today should be the last day of very cold temperatures. It has already gone up from the -30°C in the morning to a relatively warm -20 by the time we went for our walk! Based on the forecast today should be the last day of very cold temperatures. It has already…

Woohoo! After several days of over -30°C it was only -25 today and it felt almost warm.

Luckily before this cold spell started and after the last heavy snowfall the neghbors snowmobile has been out and we also managed to make our own paths in the snow. It’s a lot easier for the dogs when they can choose their own pace and don’t have to dig their way through the soft snow…

A rare photobomb from Eino.

Eino for the start of the year. Because of the cold, not all of the white or grey on his snout is due to his age.

Well, it’s been a very cold start for the year. The temperature dropped to -30°C during the night but luckily came up to -20°C by the time we walked the dogs. The coats are on and the walks are shorter than usual. Despite the beauty of it all, we have to keep our time out…

Happy New Year! We’ve started the new year with a brisk -22°C and a nice walk in the sunshine.

Our boys message to everyone shooting off fireworks this new years eve.

Both November and December were very grey and walks even in the low lying sun were a rarity. Of course it means we got a good amount of snow, but we’ve missed the sun.

Is that another long weekend we see peeking around the corner? Is that another long weekend we see peeking around the corner?

Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean that playtime is over.

When it comes to snow, we’ve had an absolutely wonderful year. At the moment we have over 40 cm (14″) of snow which means lots of fun in the snow. And of course it also meant that the muddy season of fall was short.

And the final Christmas portrait with Eino the Sailor. That Christmas hat looks more like a sailor hat on Eino’s head. And a smattering of Kulo as well.

Continuing the official portraits with Kulo.

Let’s start the official Christmas portraits with the leader of the pack, Kamu.

Merry Christmas from all of us to all of you!

Kulo: Snow? What snow? I wasn’t eating any snow.

A quick jump from summer to winter so that at least the photos around Christmas don’t look out of place. We will start publishing our photos from our autumn trip after the new year.

Playtime once again. Or on every walk, at least if Kulo is asked. Playtime once again. Or on every walk, at least if Kulo is asked. Playtime once again. Or on every walk, at least if Kulo is asked.

Flatcoats and running free. The joy of simple things in life.

Playing chase the setter

How about we run through the rest of our summer photos before Christmas?

Friendship

And the final picture of the summer flowers, Kamu in the magenta. And the final picture of the summer flowers, Kamu in the magenta.

Yet another throwback and Eino in the summer. For some reason he always ends up being photographed next to anything close to red in color.

A throwback to summer and Kulo among the summer flowers. A throwback to summer and Kulo among the summer flowers.

No one seems to know exactly when you can start using the term Multi Champion for your dog, but we decided that with Kamu he probably can, after all he has nine. So he got a rosette for it 🙂

14 years ago Topi was born. We still miss him so, but hope that he and Luka as well as all the rest enjoy romping around somewhere over the rainbow bridge. 14 years ago Topi was born. We still miss him so, but hope that he and Luka as well as all the rest enjoy…

Swimming for a bumper in the rain. It’s always so much fun to watch a flatcoat at work, be it training or hunting. Swimming for a bumper in the rain. It’s always so much fun to watch a flatcoat at work, be it training or hunting.

While Eino may avoid going out for a quick pee when it’s raining he is as enthusiastic as the others in going out for a walk.

Rain? Who cares about rain?

Water drops dripping from the chins of wet flatcoats. Such a familiar sight.

It feels so weird to say that Kamu turns 6 today. We still remember driving towards Ramin’s parents place for a independence day meal and getting the message from Poland that the litter is born and there are several males in the litter for us to choose from. And then the wait of eight weeks…

There is no place or environment that isn’t suitable for a roll. Expect maybe the asphalt jungle of the cities.

A little retriever and his bumper. Some training for Kulo with distractions, a.k.a Anna and Kamu training a bit further away. A little retriever and his bumper. Some training for Kulo with distractions, a.k.a Anna and Kamu training a bit further away.

Eino: Crocodiles? Who said crocodiles? I’m staying away from the wet, scary water.

Is it a pine log? A brown crocodile? Or just Kamu?

Kulo walking, or rather running, in Topi’s footsteps with his mouth wide open and tongue out.

Continuing from yesterday’s theme, this bison was bought in Yellowstone ten years ago. And it still has its snout and eyes. Let alone the tail.

There are very few moments inside when the flatcoats don’t have toys in their mouths. We’d love to buy some new toys but they are so soft mouthed that we still have many toys from the puppytimes of Luka and Sulo still left.

Eino trying to hide from the black setter-seeking missile that may come from any direction.

A wistful look back at the weekend and spending the days outside instead of moonlight walks after work.

While Eino enjoys his rest on his couch, the flatcoats like to get some cuddles. And for once they may even sit still to enjoy some cuddles.

Rest is needed after all that romping around by the swamps and ponds.

It’s so great to follow how Kulo interacts differently with different dogs. Kamu is clearly the boss. Someone to be clearly subservient towards. You can clearly see it in Kulo’s body language in these photos. Eino on the other hand? Well he’s Kulo’s toy… It’s so great to follow how Kulo interacts differently with different…

A swimming Kamu. The older he gets the more his coat is starting to resemble that of Topi. Especially that little bunch of fur right at the end of his head. What we used to call Topi’s devil horns…

We rarely talk about gear here, but one of the absolute benefits of getting a mirrorless camera (can’t really call them DSLRs anymore) is the fact that you can actually shoot by using the rear display and not the optical viewfinder. Being able to change the angle of the display allows you to shoot from…

Eino and a flatcoat zooming by. Getting pictures of Eino alone is often quite challenging since the flatcoats are real lens hogs.

He can look extremely goofy, but there are moments where he really knows how to show himself as the handsome dog that he is. He can look extremely goofy, but there are moments where he really knows how to show himself as the handsome dog that he is. He can look extremely goofy, but there…

Kulo’s water art

The three faces of a shaking flatcoat The three faces of a shaking flatcoat The three faces of a shaking flatcoat

The happiness of a flatcoat by the water with free permission to swim.

Eino is still a bit unsure whether the water is warm enough for a swim or not. Admittedly, this picture was taken in the end of July and the water was plenty warm…

A tired Anna and Kamu napping at a friend’s place on our way back home.

Puddles, graffiti and a handsome dog. Quite a combination.

After the three days of shows in the countryside near Tartu and boondocking in the woods for over a week we went for a walk in a new part of Tallinn while waiting for the ferry back to Finland. Old wooden houses, cute coffee shops and a relaxing walks without too many tourists.

Our summer trip in the Baltics was concluded by three shows in Estonia. The day before the shows while walking the dogs in the countryside a dog attacked from a fenced yard where the gate was open and despite our attempts to block it from reaching our boys it managed to bite Kulo’s tail. After…

During a heatwave it is so important to manage the temperature in the van. Because we like wildcamping and do think a generator belongs to wildcamping air conditioning is out of the question. So the ability to have the doors open, with mosquito nets since we are in mosquito area, and several fans to facilitate…

Our summer trip to the Baltics was accompanied by a heatwave. We stayed away from the coast – except for a stop in Pärnu – and mostly hung out in various wildcamping spots by bodies of water so that we could swim. Our summer trip to the Baltics was accompanied by a heatwave. We stayed…

Yes, of course the boys got to swim in the Salaca river. In fact, it was warm enough that Anna also went for a swim. Without the boys though. Yes, of course the boys got to swim in the Salaca river. In fact, it was warm enough that Anna also went for a swim. Without…

The walk was wonderful, but we were reminded of what it is like to walk dogs in tick infested areas once we got back to the van. We took out well over 50 ticks out of the two dogs after this one walk. But at least the boys had fun 🙂

After the shows we headed inland and avoided the vacationer hotspots along the Baltic coast. We ended up walking the dogs in the Salaca Valley in northern Latvia and enjoyed the very red rock there. After the shows we headed inland and avoided the vacationer hotspots along the Baltic coast. We ended up walking the…

Kulo watching the swimmers and waiting for his turn in the water.

We decided to take a couple of weeks of vacation in July and head into Latvia and Estonia and see what the Baltics are like during the summer. We managed be there during a real heatwave and of course we spotted a couple of dog shows for Kulo as well. This is from the first…

You know, we have no idea where June went. Ramin traveled for work and mostly we just tried to relax and recharge from the trip to the UK and the busy May that we had. We barely have any pictures taken with our phones during June, let alone any of our other cameras.

Eino’s favority place in the van – the couch. Of course, under the watchful eye of Kulo if Eino does dare to move. Eino: I’m not impressed. Can you keep the brat from bothering my beauty sleep?

Kamu, Anna Olavi’s daughter and Olavinlinna, Olav’s castle in Savonlinna. It was fun traveling to shows close to home during May and having the rest of the weekend available to explore the countryside and cities close to home.

Did you miss Eino? Kulo sure did during the two months they were separated. We are not exactly sure how Eino felt about it all…

It was weird to come back to Finland from England where all the spring flowers had already had their moment of glory and here the spring flowers were barely waking up with the tulips in bloom in late May.

After we returned from Great Britain, we started Kulo’s show circuit in Finland. Anna had mapped out the shows in Finland during the summer that were feasible to travel to, but four shows in a bit over a month resulted with Kulo being best of breed a couple of times, getting two adult CACs and…

Crossing the English Channel didn’t mean that we immediately left the coast behind. The boys got one more romp in the channel waters and around the remains of the Atlantic Wall in France before we started to head back to Finland. On the way back we stopped at a couple of dog shows in Lithuania,…

The final romp on the English beaches. Until the next time we make our way to the British Isles. We honestly did treat the trip as a once in a lifetime experience. Or at least that was the plan. But nearly half a year after leaving the British Isles we have a strong inkling that…

Looking across the channel again…

We’re at the point of our showing pictures from our UK trip that we are at the last of everything. This is Kamu and the last set of ruins for the trip. We’re at the point of our showing pictures from our UK trip that we are at the last of everything. This is Kamu…

Heading back down to the van and the last of the singletrack country lanes. Heading back down to the van and the last of the singletrack country lanes.

Anna and Kamu enjoying the last of the grand views of the British countryside left for the trip. Anna and Kamu enjoying the last of the grand views of the British countryside left for the trip. Anna’s point of view

Sorry for being late in posting. We’ve been recovering from traveling and shows. Back to normal schedule tomorrow.

Little Kulo finished his time in the junior rings with a bang. Yesterday at Tallinn International Dog Show he finished three titles: Estonian junior champion, Baltic junior champion*, and International Junior Beauty Champion*. Today is still a show day, but there is nothing left for Kulo to achieve, except experience. He has a bit over…

Try taking pictures of these clowns… Try taking pictures of these clowns… Try taking pictures of these clowns… Finally.

Once again, heading up the hill.

Kamu and Kulo: Ok, you can stop taking photos of the sweaters now and come feed us breakfast. Please. The sweaters in question.

Air traffic control keep a watchful eye on the flight operations. And the result of the flight operations And the result of the flight operations